Romance lives.

I forgive you for scoffing. It’s hard to believe that something as mythical as romance exists when the hooking up dominates the tradition of serious relationships.

I’m not talking about your average fairytale though. Prince Charming only gets in a girl’s way when searching for a good guy. I’m talking about when a person knows you and is crazy enough about you that they want to show you how much you mean to them in a brand new way.

Somewhere between the hours of phone conversations and 45,000 words written back and forth, I realized my new relationship had become something much more important than I ever expected. I’ve already touched on how excited I was for him to get back from halfway across the globe but I was also incredibly nervous. His re-entrance into my life would be a test. How would two people that had learned so much about each other long-distance play face-to-face? Could we reconnect the warm voices over the phone and distinct words on the page to faces we could scarcely remember?

We’d agreed back in May we would have one date when he returned to see if we should continue seeing each other. After nearly five months had passed, it was obvious we would but he still wanted to keep our date. September 26th, I hopped in my car with no idea where I was going or what I would be doing once I got there. I had vague instructions to see a valet so I assumed we were meeting at a hotel restaurant or something.

Using the directions given, I went into the city and arrived at a gorgeous hotel. I was too busy gaping to adequately explain my situation to the valet, my awe only increasing when he immediately knew who I was and why I was there. He gave me my next set of instructions and a red rose that seemed to appear out of no where.

A friendly push in the right direction (literally) and I was at the front desk. Stammering intelligently, I received a smug smile from the woman behind the counter. I seemed to be the only one in the dark as she revealed that she, too, knew exactly who I was. More instructions, a room key and another beautiful red rose and I was in the elevator deliberating slapping myself so I would know this wasn’t real. Curiosity got the best of me and I decided I wanted to know just how delusional I really was.

Nerves gave way to giddiness. I peeked out of the elevator like I was expecting…hell, I didn’t know what to expect. A normal hall of doors just like any other hotel greeted me. Naturally, as I wandered into the hallway, I forgot to look behind me. I nearly backed into a much larger set of double doors, secured with, what else, a single red rose.

I didn’t even get a chance to knock. I was yanked in and pulled into a huge hug. He looked like a little boy, smiling hopefully, searching for my reaction. I guess he saw what he was looking for because his grin only got bigger and he hugged me again, whispering “Surprise.”


We spent the weekend exploring the city, going wherever whim decided, staying up late and sleeping in. It was a fairytale of the best kind. It was real.